Klaus Tennstedt conducts Bruckner: Symphony No. 7

Boston Symphony Orchestra, 1977

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Tennstedt duly made his US debut in December 1974, conducting the Boston Symphony Orchestra in an all-Brahms programme and then in Bruckner's Symphony No.8. A legend was born and a career was made. One headline the next day ran: "Bruckner – Tennstedt – BSO – Once in a Lifetime."

Klaus Tennstedt went on to develop a special relationship with the BSO, conducting it regularly until 1987. An unlikely superstar was now burning brightly in the classical music firmament. And this excerpt is remarkable for many reasons. It brings the first public release of a full-length symphonic work played by the BSO under Tennstedt. Also, it is, by some way, the earliest concert footage we appear to have of Klaus Tennstedt.

The critics were unanimous in their praise of Tennstedt conception of Bruckner's Symphony No. 7. The staff critic of the Boston Globe was impressed by a man he described as "the towering Tennstedt": "Tennstedt's tall and angular body is a contrapuntal instrument and he uses it to dramatize and elicit the mounting tentions and releases of this music... The string tone, dark and weighty, was something fabulous..."